Legal

Sears Holdings Corp. CEO Edward Lampert said the struggling department store chain is “fighting like hell” — and that includes its dealings with the state of Illinois, public records show. The Chicago Tribune reports the company threatened legal action in a months-long battle over $14.8 million in state tax credits Sears believed it earned in 2016…

In the past two years, dozens of states, municipalities and cities have considered legislation that requires businesses that hire hourly workers, like retail stores and restaurants, to provide extra pay to employees for last-minute work schedule changes. Several major cities have enacted such measures into law, including New York City, San Francisco and Seattle. Predictive…

A woman in California has filed a lawsuit against Wal-Mart over claims the company keeps products primarily used by African-Americans inside a locked glass case. Essie Grundy told reporters in Los Angeles on Friday that she felt humiliated and discriminated against when on three occasions this month she had to ask a store employee at…

Abercrombie & Fitch has agreed to pay $25 million to settle claims by workers that the New Albany, Ohio-based retailer forced them to buy its clothing to wear to work and didn’t reimburse them. The settlement covers about a quarter-million current and former Abercrombie and Hollister hourly workers in California, Florida, New York and Massachusetts, according…

Apparel retailer Nine West Holdings and its creditors are close to finishing a deal to restructure more than $1 billion of debt, which includes filing for bankruptcy and divesting parts of the business, Bloomberg reported Wednesday, based on conversations with people familiar with those talks. This strategy would include asset sales to pay off creditors, where Nine…

Apple yesterday announced a sweeping set of moves partially tied to the recent tax bill, including paying $38 billion in taxes from profits made overseas as required by recent changes to the tax law.; creating more than 20,000 new jobs at existing Apple campuses and a new corporate campus it plans to build; and pledging…

The U.S. Supreme Court will consider freeing state and local governments to collect billions of dollars in sales taxes from online retailers, agreeing to revisit a 26-year-old ruling that has made much of the internet a tax-free zone. Heeding calls from traditional retailers and dozens of states, the justices said they will hear South Dakota’s contention…

What a year it has been for retail! As we count down the days to 2018, the Total Retail team has reflected on the biggest stories that shook up the industry. Below are just three of the top stories we've reported on. 1. Amazon.com's Acquisition of Whole Foods We can't talk about e-commerce or retail…

The National Retail Federation (NRF) yesterday praised passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the most sweeping change in U.S. tax laws since 1986, as a job-creating measure. The bill includes deep tax cuts for businesses and tax reductions for middle-class consumers, which proponents — including the NRF — say will spur economic growth at a time when…

Luxury apparel and accessories retail chain Calypso St. Barth is shuttering all of it U.S. stores and liquidating its remaining inventory. Asset firms Tiger Group and Great American Group are supervising the going-out-of-business sales at the retailer’s 16 stores in New York, Georgia, Massachusetts, Colorado, California, Florida, Arizona, Maryland and South Carolina. The inventory is…